Cross the chasm with us at OpenEd 2009

It’s going to be one hot summer here in Vancouver, as I am thrilled to be one of the co-organizers of the 6th Annual Open Education Conference, hosted by UBC at its downtown Robson Square campus, August 12-14. OpenEd has been one of my absolute favorite events for a number of years, and I can’t wait to do it up west coast Canadian-style. The planning so far with my good friends David Wiley, Scott Leslie, and Chris Lott has been an absolute blast, and judging from how things are going I’m confident that the event will be dynamic and stimulating, yet friendly, fun and accessible.

More to come, much more… But in the meantime I draw your attention to our scheduled keynote speakers. Fred Mulder is the Rector of Open Universiteit Nederland and has been leading Holland’s National Initiative on Lifelong Learning since 2005. Catherine Ngugi is the Project Director for the truly inspiring OER Africa juggernaut. And finally, we have Ken Freedman, Station Manager and Program Director of the mighty WFMU, not to mention founder of the just-launched Free Music Archive. Long-time readers of this blog will understand what a big deal that last keynote is for me personally… and indeed I’ll need a few follow-up posts to express just how excited I am that I will finally be meeting one of my true heroes. (Not to mention writing more about the very impressive and hopefully game-changing FMA.)

For now there is plenty of hard work here on the ground to ensure that the OpenEd party reaches its full glorious manic potential. And there is at least one way you can help. The call for proposals has been posted with a May 1 deadline, and I fervently hope we will have some very tough decisions to make for the program. Obviously, a gathering is as only as strong as its participants. And speaking for myself, I’m hopeful this event will build on the identity of previous OpenEd conferences to push the notion of how we think about open education. I’m hoping to see a strong presence from the worlds of social media and the open web, not to mention the participation of community educators and activists. So please consider submitting a proposal (we tried to make that painless as possible), blogging or Tweeting it, and/or passing the call on to anyone you know who might be interested. And if you have questions about just how fabulous Vancouver is to visit in the summertime, or how to make the most of your trip, please consider me your host.

Let’s make it one for the ages people. I want that open education goodness to kick Van Rock City so hard that the 2010 Olympics will just seem like a hangover…